Lightstone Group's development on the banks of the Gowanus Canal at 363-365 Bond Street

water rising at Lightstone Group's 363 Bond Street site

Lighststone site at 365 Bond Street. Water surrounds the foundation of the building

Lighstone site at 365 Bond Street.

Today's Nor'Easter has drenched the area and brought more flooding to the Gowanus area. I ventured out with an umbrella and my camera about noon today in the pouring rain to take a walk across the Gowanus Canal.
It was just past high tide, and in some areas, the water was starting to come over the banks of the canal.

The site of Lightstone Group's 700 unit rental development at 363-365 Bond Street in particular seemed to be flooded. As crews were continuing to work on the site through the heavy downpour, water from the canal was surrounding the foundation of the building at the 365 Bond Street site near Second Street. It actually seemed as though there was a moat around it.
I talked to a worker who was taking a cigarette break nearby, who confirmed that the water was rising on the site. "They have to figure out what to do," he told me,"because that canal is dangerous."

As usual, there was flooding at the 3rd Street Bridge near Whole Foods. However, the water does not come from the Gowanus, but pools in that location as rainwater flows down the street from the higher point at Smith Street

Since the rain is supposed to continue all through the day, flooding will probably be worse tonight at 11:30 PM tonight as high tide returns.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Not sure I care if the Lightstone property floods or not so long as the rain does sit on Bond Street and effect the existing neighborhood up hill on the west side of Bond.

It's also interesting to observe how effective the "Green Infrastructure" on Carroll St up hill from Bond is under there condition--basically ineffective. Just don't see how those things do anything during the rain storms that drive sewage out into the canal.

The flooding at the Lightstone site looks pretty bad. If that is really canal water, they have some big problems to figure out. I guess that they will be building a retaining wall as part of the esplanade. They had better get going on that. Whole Foods looks like it is fairing much better, that high water is no where near breaching that wall. The city also has to sort out the drainage for the area around the 3rd street bridge; that is always a problem.

remarkably judging from the pics the canal itself doesn't look that bad considering the amount of rain.. However, this lighstone project should have finished with a retaining wall and site drainage improvements before putting up buildings whether we want it there or not..